Mermaid In The Bathtub
by hetacat500
Summary: Emil enjoys a walk on the beach one summer day when he finds someone laying on some rocks. ((DenIce MermaidxHuman AU))
1. Beauty In The Water

Some people call them sirens, who stalk the murky waters for sailors, luring them with a killer song. Others, call them mermaids,who glide about near the ocean floor frolicking among themselves. I call them absolutely magnificent- well, at least the one i know.

Truthfully i didn't even think much of them until one summer morning when i was walking along a beach near my house.

I was walking towards some rocks when i saw what looked like a person asleep and wrapped in a sea green towel. But as i walked closer i realized who ever it was wasn't asleep and looked hurt so i ran towards the person. Then i noticed that that wasn't a sea green towel either...

The creature had pale freckled skin, blonde hair that stuck out at all angles that was a little damp like it had been in the water, it also had a muscular chest and over all male body features, but also a long scaly sea-green tail resembling that of a fish.

"Hey! who are you?!"

the creature smiled at me with a wide grin. His sky blue eye met with mine.

"I'm Emil. Who are you?"

"I'm Mathias! where am i?"

He sat up and tried to move his tail, instantly flinching in pain due to a long gash on the side of the tail.

"How did you get that gash?"

Mathias looked at me pain sparkled in his blue eyes.

"It's a long story..."

"oh... Do you need any help getting back to the water or...?"

"NO!" He almost looked frightened at the thought.

"okay... but isn't your tail gonna dry out if you stay here?"

Mathias thought for a moment and looked at me.

"i guess... but i can't go back!"

'what am i going to do? he's stranded and needs water but can't go in the ocean... '

"is there any way i can help you Mathias?"

Mathias looked at me for a moment.

"well, is there any way you can keep my tail wet?"

It finally came to me. "The bathtub!"

"the what?! What's a 'bathtub'?!"

I stared at him for a moment trying to think of a way to explain...

"It's a porcelain um... sort of bowl where you go to soak in water to clean yourself."

Mathias looked at me with intrest. as if i had told him of an amazing story.

"wow... i've always wondered how air-walkers cleaned..."

I looked at him confused. "Air-walker?"

"y'know a mermaid that doesn't have fins and doesn't swim normally and walks on land?"

"ohhhhh... like a human?"

Mathias chuckled i blushed lightly. not sure what was so funny...

"so that's what you call yourselves... im sorry, though i do find you air- i mean humans, quite interesting... that's kinda part of why i can't go home..."

"huh?you can't go home? were you like banned?"

Mathias gave a nervous laugh. "yeah... kinda..."

Realization flooded in. "oh... well if you want i can take you in..."

He looked up to me bright-eyed and smiling, a pink dusting on his freckled cheeks.

"you would?! oh thank you! thank you! thank you!"

He pulled me into a large hug and held on for a solid minute before letting me go. I took in his salty ocean scent in large breaths.

"well let's get going the car's not far!" i stated once the hug had ended.

"um... one issue... i can't walk... you may have to carry me."


	2. Heads And Tails

Mathias was sitting in the back of my car. His tail wrapped in a towel I had in my car that was moisened in the water before we left for my house, so his tail wouldn't dry out. The car ride had been almost completely quiet except for Mathias' occasional 'oohs' and 'ahhs' at the trees and houses he could see out the car window.

"Hey we're almost there." Mathias looked at me with wide eyes.

"Oh. Really? Wow how long has it been?"

"About 15 minutes." Mathias was back to looking out the window mesmerized.

"hmm..."

I spent the time between now and when we would get home thinking. Mostly about Mathias, 'what exactly happened in order for him to get in so much trouble? He seems like a nice guy but what if he's just deceiving me? No he wouldn't right?' I looked back to get a good look at Mathias.

His hair was now fully dry and he had his face pressed up to the window. He turned and looked at me, the sunlight illuminating his freckled face. 'cute...'

"Emil..."

"Yes?"

"What are those tall brown and green things outside the window?"

"Oh those are trees."

"Hmmm... I like them... they're pretty."

"Yeah they are pretty amazing.."

"Sea Plants never grew this big... well at least the ones I've seen."

"What part of the ocean are you from anyway?"

"North Sea. Around Denmark... But in the winter we would migrate to the coast of Florida of the U.S."

"Wow... I've never been to Denmark or Florida... But How'd You get to a beach here?"

"Well after i was banished i got stick in some weird contraption and hit my head. So I was wandering the ocean lost to start with, And I got in a storm and next thing I knew my head wasn't hurting but i had a huge gash on my tail and was beached. That's when I met you."

"Oh yeah the storm last night... Hmmm..."

I looked back to the road. 'He can't be deceiving me. He's gone through a lot. And how could someone bad be so cute?'

We finally pulled up to my house. I went over to Open Mathias' car door so i could carry him into the house.

"Ugh..." I trembled lightly under his weight but still managed to keep us both up.

"Are you sure about this i don't want you to hurt yourself.."

"Well I carried you to the car didn't I? I can carry you into the house."

I slowly carried him to the door and managed to get us inside. I laid him down on the kitchen table temporarily to catch my breath.

"Emil... Are you ok?"

I looked up and stretched my aching arms."Yeah. I'm fine just not used to lifting"

"Oh... Please be careful..."

I nodded to him before picking him up again bridal-style. Until reaching the foot of my stairs leading to the upstairs where the bathtub was. The one no one really used.

"Ok now let's hope we din't fall." At this statement Mathias automatically clung to me.

"Ok... I've never fallen on land before but i can imagine it's painful by the way you said that..."

I slowly and cautiously made it up the stairs and into the bathroom where i laid him into the tub before preceding to fill it with water.

"Ahh... That feels so good..."

After allowing Mathias to shift and make himself comfortable I decided it was time to ask the question that had been bugging my mind all the drive home.

"Mathias... What exactly happened that got you banned from the ocean?"


	3. Part of Your World

Mathias was silent for a second. He looked deep in thought trying to remember the whole story.  
At last he found his words and spoke.  
"Well... I'm a merman, well you kinda knew that from the tail and all."  
I nodded silently. "Yeah..."  
Mathias sighed. "Well where I lived before this mess was in a town of other Merfolk like me..." He paused. "But it wasn't like the tales where the Merfolk sing out on rocks for random stupid people to fall for, no. We stayed away from people, they stayed away from us. Although we had stories about them like they did us."  
I was fully transfixed in Mathias' words. I stared at Mathias in full focus, wide eyed and waiting for Mathias to carry on talking.  
"Go on..."

Mathias took a deep breath. "Like in our tales the air- I mean humans had large glowing ships and their light attracted anything and everything. Fish, whales, turtles, even merfolk. And when the creatures would approach the ships they vanished." Mathias made a hand motion to go with it. "Poof. Like magic they were never seen again..."

I shivered. I know what Mathias was talking about. I remember seeing the large shipping vessels docking when I walked or biked near the harbor. I would always see men cutting multicolored fish from nets for sale.

Mathias continued. "We normally kept away from humans, hell, some of us didn't even know they existed. But a few of us didn't see what was wrong with humans. We thought they were like us but with legs, not fins." Mathias paused again. "But that was, well, an 'unpopular opinion'. Merfolk didn't normally see past fairytale. They believed humans were only poachers. That humans were only there to lure us into traps and hurt us, That you're evil monsters."

He reached out and my held hand. He looked into my violet depths. I felt my heart skip a beat at Mathias' glowing ocean blue eyes staring into mine.  
"But you're not... You aren't just fairytales made to keep foolish kids away from the surface...You're not just killer monsters... You're not just fake..." Mathias held my hand tighter. "I knew you were real... I dreamed of what it would be like to find one of you... But, I was seen as crazy.. For believing that there was more, and i found things that were... Amazing, really." Mathias pulled out an old, battered, necklace. It had opals and diamonds shining along the dull silver chain.

I stared at the old jewelry. Regardless of the fact it looked at least 100 years old, It looked beautiful.

Mathias stared at it as well. "You like it? I found it in a shipwreck... You have such beautiful stones and gems... I've never seen any seashells or seaglass like them... It's beautiful right?"

I looked up at him from the necklace. "Yeah..."

"I had loads of things like this from shipwrecks and things that washed around in storms... But I had to hide them they weren't allowed in my city... I kept them secret."  
I could see the growing pain in Mathias' eyes the more he talked. "You must miss it don't you..."

Mathias looked down into the water. "Yeah... But It was hard... They found everything i collected and threw it at rocks... I only managed to save this..." He shook the necklace. "They tried me for insanity...For felonies that weren't even crimes, well at least they shouldn't be..."  
Mathias shook his head. "Maybe I am a little crazy but I'm not being killed, or tortured, hell, I was saved by a human. You."

I looked away blushing slightly. "Well...What else was I gonna do? Let you be eaten by gulls?"

Mathias smiled and his cheeks grew a soft rosy red. "Well you didn't hurt me after, did ya?"

I laughed too. "I would never! you're too cute to eat."

Mathias went red. "Well you're not so bad yourself, for a human. Anyway long story short, I got kicked out, caught in a storm, and hurt my tail." He flipped said tail revealing the gash. "But everything's fine because I'm alive, I met a human and I have a nice friend!" Mathias looked down. "A really cute human friend..."

I smiled. "Yeah... Everything is fine...you're one of the nicest people I've ever met really, and you're not even a full person!"

We both laughed for a bit but then there was a knock and a door opening down stairs.

"Emil! I'm home!"

I froze abruptly. 'Oh shit what's Lukas gonna do when he finds a random merman in the house...?!'


	4. Splashing Out Of Water

Lukas' footsteps could be heard echoing as he walked around the living room and kitchen. "Emil? Are you home? The car's in the drive way..."  
I held my breath. i needed to either go downstairs and face my older brother or hide Mathias before he finds me- or us.  
Mathias looked up and whispered. "Psst, Who's that? Is he like your brother or something?"  
I nodded. "Yeah, his name is Lukas...Shit he can't find you. He believes in merfolk, but he also isn't okay with me bringing random people home..."

Lukas' voice grew louder. "Emil, Were you at the beach or something there's sand everywhere!"

I tensed up.

Mathias blushed a little and breathlessly murmured. "Sorry..."

"Shh... He'll hear you..."

Lukas' steps grew louder as he started up the stairs.

"Shit wait, I have a plan!" I quickly sprang up and shut the shower curtain on Mathias. Then I striped off my shirt, pants and socks and covered my hips and underwear with a towel. It was a plan I just hope it works.

Lukas opened the door. "Emil, wait what are you doing?"

I turned red. "U-uh I'm getting in the shower!"

Lukas' emotionless, deep eyes looked into mine.

'Oh shit he knows something's up... I'm doomed...' I thought frantically trying to not give off anything being odd.

"Hmm... You usually shower in the bathroom downstairs."

I blushed darker. I am no good at keeping secrets.

"Uh, Yeah I wanted to try something new...Yeah..."

Lukas nodded slightly. "Then get in the shower, I'll leave you to it."

I was astonished. 'Oh my god he fell for it.'

Lukas stared at me. "Well, Are you going to get IN the shower?"

I nodded quickly. "Yeah, Yeah lemme just-" I parted the curtain only enough for me to get in. I stepped in and heard a pained, sharp breath. Lukas heard it too.

"What was that?"  
The color drained from my face as I tried to think of something, anything.  
"I stepped on a razor."  
Lukas' eyes sparkled with something. "You don't shave."

'Oh shit...'

"Oh... I just started..." I heard a quiet chuckle from behind the curtain.  
Lukas looked around. "What the hell?"

He drew back the curtain to reveal a blonde merman trying to hold back laughing covering his mouth and rosy freckled cheeks with his hands.

Lukas' jaw gaped. "E-Emil... Who is this? Why is he in the bathtub? And why did you bring him here?"

I felt flustered. "I was w-walking and I found him and he was hurt and I brought him home and I put him in the tub to keep his tail wet and he's really nice and we're friends and please don't be mad! He just wanted to see what our world's like and he was kicked out of his home and I tried to hide him!"

Lukas blinked a couple times. "So you found a merman."

I blushed. "Yeah, He's not just a merman his name is Mathias."

Hearing his cue Mathias popped up and waved. "Hi! I'm Mathias. Your brother's really nice please don't get mad at him, please?"  
Lukas looked at him, then me. "I won't..."

I felt a little more calm. Then I remembered I was almost naked in a towel. "Shit..." Quickly I grabbed my shirt and threw it on and then my pants.

Mathias giggled. "Wow Emil... I was wondering when you'd notice!"  
"N-not funny..." I felt my cheeks grow hot.

Lukas glared at me then Mathias. "I'll leave you two alone." Lukas walked over to me on his way out. "Happy farytale little brother. Enjoy your merman prince~." Lukas whispered in my ear before proceeding to leave giggling silently to himself.

"S-shut up..." I muttered after him. I felt my whole body become hot after that.  
'Maybe he's not completely wrong... Mathias is really sweet, sweeter than him that's for sure.'

Mathias moved his tail up and over the bathtub rim and moved his hands behind his head before laying back.  
"Your brother seems nice."  
"Just wait til you get to know him then see what you think."

Mathias chuckled. His warm bright smile illuminating his glowing face. His freckled cheeks were as rosy as when he was found earlier,no, maybe more so.

"Well you're nice maybe it rubs off on him."

I hid my face trying not to laugh or show how dark my cheeks must be.

"No, not really first of all, I'm not that nice. Second, Lukas doesn't work like that truthfully I think hiss attitude rubbed off on me."  
Mathias moved my hand. "Naw you're too sweet that's the problem!"

"You're one to talk." I muttered. A faint smile crept on my lips.  
Lukas interrupted before Mathias had a chance to speak.

"You do know you don't have my blessing yet, right little brother? Save it for the honeymoon."

"LUKAS!" Mathias' chuckle only made matters worse.

Lukas popped his head back in. "Oh there you are I thought I was missing a tomato." 


End file.
